When I read about Raif Bronnenmeier's fatal accident, I went to Flightaware to see the flight path, as was suggested in a posting a couple days ago.

Flightaware has him descending at 1am (in the darkness of morning, possibly IMC) into his destination airport, with a groundspeed of 269 knots (310 mph) at 3600 MSL (reporting), the last transponder report before impact.  That is so very fast, especially at night and 2600 AGL, especially after a long day, that this seems most unusual for the obvious reasons.

But then I noted that he filed 295 TAS for most of his flights, even when planning for 12,000' cruise in this piston LIVP.  I usually file 240 TAS to 250 TAS depending on altitude (16K' to FL230, respectively); and 12,000' LOP would be 230 TAS.  Some of his flights never realized this in groundspeed, but some did; Flightaware only reports groundspeed measured, but the filed speed is listed.

       http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N40941/history/20140726/1800Z/KDUH/KBIV
       http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N40941/history/20140720/0110Z/KMCD/5G7

Who among us with LIVP files 295 knots TAS? Realistically, I doubt that any of us (even the turboprop Evolutions) can cruise at 295 knots true, which reminds me of the TAS calculation error caused by engine exhaust contamination and thermal effect that inflates the true airspeed presented by the onboard computers.

Jeff L
LIVP